Xiuhtli (MH775r)
This black-line drawing of the simplex glyph for the personal name Xiuhtli ("Comet") is attested here as a man's name. It shows a wavy, pointed, lightning bolt-like shape. It is half white and half gray the full length of the shape. Surrounding the shape are dots that seem to add motion or vibrance.
Stephanie Wood
This popular name, Xiuhtli, is linked to the religious calendar of years, because it was a name given to boys born during the time of the binding ceremony at the end of every fifty-two year cycle.
Glyphs for comets very considerably, as the examples below will attest. If we think of a comet as a star with a long tail, moving through the sky, it helps understand the ones that look something like a worm with a head and lots of dots or short lines around it. Another one, however, is a horizontal, multicolored snake. A considerable number simply have turquoise (xihuitl) tesserae, which provide a near homophone as a phonetic indicator.
juā . xiuhtli
Juan Xiuhtli
Stephanie Wood
1560
Jeff Haskett-Wood
cometas, comets, celestial, calendarios, xiuhpohualli, religión, nombres de hombres
xiuh(tli), comet, and a name given to a boy born during the binding of the years, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/xiuhtli
Cometa
Stephanie Wood
Matrícula de Huexotzinco, folio 775r, World Digital Library, https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_15282/?sp=624&st=image
This manuscript is hosted by the Library of Congress and the World Digital Library; used here with the Creative Commons, “Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License” (CC-BY-NC-SAq 3.0).
